The Animal and Animal Product Functionality Research Unit (URAFPA) conducts research in line with major societal challenges and focuses on food safety and population aging, particularly in relation to animal production and the quality of animal products.
The issues related to food safety refer to two distinct issues: the development of fish production and the control of the sanitary quality of animal products. The unit is one of the rare research laboratories in France, whose work is carried out from the animal, model or farmed, to the impact on mankind. Moreover, its research is based on different animal models (fish, farmed mammals and birds, laboratory animals).
URAFPA is composed of 24 university scientists and researchers, 11 technicians and 10 doctorates, organized in 3 research units:
- The Continental Aquaculture Domestication team is developing a generic approach to rationally apprehend the process of domestication in aquaculture and to promote a diversified, sustainable and territorially integrated aquaculture.
- The Micropollutants and Residue in the Food Chain unit seeks to evaluate and control the transfer of micropollutants and residues in order to secure the farming systems against chemical risk of environmental origin.
- The Food Quality and Aging team focuses on the mechanisms that affect dietary lipid bioavailability of dietary lipids and that contribute to the metabolic and cellular dysfunctions associated with aging.
The unit has two technology platforms
- PEA : Experimental Platform in Aquaculture
- Bio-DA : Bioavaibility Bioactivity Platform and is partner of three technology platforms
- PASM : Platform for structural and Metabolomic analysis
- ASIA : Functional and Structural Approaches to Cellular Interactions
- ACBS : Animal facility on the Biology and Health campus
The unit is involved in